FAITH

FAITH is the Federal Alien Intelligence and Technology Headquarters, a top secret branch of the Canadian government tasked with investigating extra-terrestrial activity in the country. The time travelers encountered members of FAITH several times during the 1970s and 1980s, and in some ways they were at least partially responsible for the organization's formation.

FAITH was formed in the wake of the Shag Harbour UFO incident in 1967, though it inherited intelligence and resources from earlier extraterrestrial-related efforts of the Canadian Government like Project Magnet. FAITH fell under the purview of the Department of Transport due to the involvement of the Coast Guard in the Shag Harbour incident.

FAITH's primary headquarters was a secret facility built underneath the Canadian military and civilian telecommunication research campus at Shirleys Bay in Ottawa, though by the early 1970s it also had administrative facilities in the Place de Ville complex in downtown Ottawa alongside other Department of Transport (later Transport Canada) offices. FAITH also had field offices and other facilities located across the country (and possibly internationally).

By the late 1970s FAITH was operating in cooperation with the global community and had close ties with the United Nations Intelligence Task Force (UNIT) and the International Space Command (ISC). In cooperation with the ISC FAITH operated its own fleet of spacecraft reverse engineered from captured and recovered alien technology. As part of this FAITH operated a top secret space launch facility located somewhere in the Canadian Shield.

FAITH's capabilities were greatly reduced in the 1990s under budget cuts and government restructuring, where due to its affiliation with the Canadian Coast Guard it was moved under the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. It is known that FAITH will survive in at least some form well into the 59th Century and beyond, where at least some members of Library and Archives Canada and its successor organizations refer to themselves as Librarians, Archivists and Keepers of Faith (or FAITH).

Technology

At its peak in the 1970s and 1980s FAITH had access to the most cutting edge technology on Earth, as well as technologies that its scientists were reverse engineering from alien technology. In 1986 this was best represented by the Aurora spacecraft.

Aurora

The Aurora spacecraft was a multi-thrust vehicle, the pinnacle of FAITH technological efforts. The vessel itself still requires a conventional booster to achieve orbit, as the vehicle's magnetic propulsion does not provide sufficient lift to get out of Earth's gravity well. Once the booster has provided enough velocity the Aurora spacecraft separates and activates its magnetic drive to accelerate into a deep space trajectory.

Ion thrusters, powered by the magnetic drive, provide maneuvering thrust once in space. The magnetic drive is used for maneuvering and acceleration/deceleration around large bodies – moons, asteroids, planets, and larger artificial bodies. The magnetic drive also provides protection and lift for landing in atmosphere.

Personnel

Here are some of the key FAITH personnel that the time travelers interacted with over the years.

Col. Tom Miller

Tom Miller first met the time travelers when he was a teenager. He helped the travelers stop an invasion by the Nestene Consciousness in the town of Arrowdown in 1959. Encouraged by Logan, Tom joined the Canadian Army and thanks to his earlier alien encounter he was eventually pulled into the FAITH organization when it formed in 1967. By 1969 he had achieved the rank of Captain and was one of the senior military officers working in FAITH.

He met the time travelers again in 1969 when they helped FAITH stop a potential Dalek attack and again in 1977 during an incident involving the Sea Devils in British Columbia. By this point Tom had been promoted to Colonel and was the senior military liaison to FAITH. Tom had a son who eventually followed in his footsteps and joined FAITH.

Appearances:

Lt. Chad Sheppard

Chad Sheppard was a military intelligence specialist working for FAITH. He first met the time travelers in 1977 during the Sea Devils incident in British Columbia where he helped negotiate a truce with the Sea Devils. He encountered the time travelers again the following year during the Bell Island Boom incident in Newfoundland. In 1984 he was involved in the aftermath of the Temple Fields Mall incident in Nova Scotia when FAITH was called in by the time travelers after they had dealt with an alien artifact affecting the local population.

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Dr. Marie-Celeste Lafontaine

Marie-Celeste Lafontaine was a scientist at FAITH. She first met the time travelers in 1986 when she was part of a team investigating a derelict spacecraft that was approaching Earth. Later that year she helped the time travelers when they came to FAITH for assistance with their malfunctioning TARDIS. Marie-Celeste joined the time travelers and the Time Lord known as the Professor when they went off in pursuit of the renegade Time Lord called the Weaver, who had stolen the travelers' TARDIS. She traveled with them to 2007 and then into the extra-dimensional realm called the Land of Fiction. Dr. Lafontaine stayed behind in the Land of Fiction as the dimension's new Controller in order to help the others escape back to the normal universe.

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Lt. Jeff Miller

Jeff Miller is the son of FAITH's senior military liaison Col. Tom Miller. Jeff followed his father into the military, though choosing to join the Royal Canadian Air Force rather than the Army. He became a pilot and joined FAITH where he flew the Aurora spacecraft. Jeff met the time travelers when FAITH sent a team to investigate a derelict spacecraft that was approaching Earth.

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Dr. Randall Kellerman

Randall Kellerman was a brilliant scientist and a professor at McGill University in Montreal. In the early 1980s Dr. Kellerman was part of FAITH and was responsible for most of the agency's major technological breakthroughs and advances based on alien technologies. Or at least they thought he was. In reality most of Kellerman's breakthroughs were due to his grad student and assistant Sawyer, who was in reality the renegade Time Lord called the Weaver. The Weaver had taken advantage of Kellerman's position to help accelerate the development of advanced technologies on Earth so he could in turn take advantage of them. Weaver abandoned his identity as Sawyer and revealed the truth about Kellerman in 1986 when he was able to get his hands on a TARDIS and no longer needed FAITH to gain access to advanced alien technology.

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